D16Z6 Engine Swap - Turning Over But Not Starting

D15, D16, D17 and Mini-Me swaps
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D16Z6 Engine Swap - Turning Over But Not Starting

By Pathless23
- Wed Sep 04, 2013 3:06 am #336318 OK, so I have a D16Z6 Engine in which I pulled from a 1995 Civic Ex. The engine only has about 90,XXX miles on it and ran absolutely no problem before I pulled it out. It sat for about a month and a half to two months before i got time to throw it into a 93 shell. The motor did not move when it was out of the car and it sat in my garage covered the whole time. I threw it all completely into the new shell with the engine and everything, and the problem now is she doesn't wanna start. She turns over no problem but she makes a very low putting sound like it might not be getting fuel or a tiny air leak or even spark maybe? (I'm not exactly sure). Now the only things i have replaced while the engine was out was the Intake manifold (which was used with another Z6 manifold just way cleaner, and yes it got a new gasket), the header manifold (which isn't completely on yet due to the fact i need to buy the rest of the nuts for it) and the cap and rotor considering it didn't show much spark the first time i tried to start it. And the other thing i noticed was that the first time i tried to start it, it didn't have the cap to the bolt that secures the fuel line to the fuel filter so it wasn't pumping fuel, however even with the cap back on that bolt it didn't wanna start and It definitely has fuel in the tank (and it didn't sound any different turning over). So I cant exactly figure out why its not starting. Any one have an idea? (BTW there might be more that I've done but I had to post this in a rush, so just ask and I'd be happy to inform you of whats been done to my her). I just need her running asap! :x
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By JUICE
- Wed Sep 04, 2013 3:17 am #336319 Can you hear the pump prime when you turn the key? If its not, it's most likely your main relay by the under dash fuse box. You should hea it click the relay when you turn the key which activates the pump.
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By TrailerTrash
- Wed Sep 04, 2013 3:17 am #336320 does the fuel pump prime?

go over all the connectors you messed with and see if anything is wrong with them.

EDIT: dangit juice :x :lol:
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By nicksdelslow
- Wed Sep 04, 2013 3:29 am #336323 Check the ecu friend had his car down for few weeks before finishing swap. For some reason ecu went to crap. Tried all the typical problems no cahnge. Pluged in a spare ecu and hit first time.

I have also had bad luck with the coils in the dizzy too.
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By Pathless23
- Wed Sep 04, 2013 4:22 am #336325 TBH it was kind of noisy the last day off i had to try so i don't know for certain if the fuel pump primed. i did try and see if any connectors were left out of place and from bottom to top i couldn't find any that weren't in place. I will definitely double check its priming as well as the main relay and ecu. ironically i do have two ecus so itll be an easy swap and test. I'll repost after ive tried it, and if theres anything else i can try please let me know. unfortunately i need it running so i can move and running short on time :?
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By Pathless23
- Wed Sep 04, 2013 4:23 am #336326 as for the dizzy coil pack, is there any way to test it to see if its causing my issue? or is it a 'replace and test' kind of fix?
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By nicksdelslow
- Wed Sep 04, 2013 2:55 pm #336335 I had multiple extras they are easy to change ten min or less.

By anya2dgre
- Wed Sep 04, 2013 6:36 pm #336342 But if it was the fuel relay then you would have gotten a code.
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By Pathless23
- Thu Sep 05, 2013 5:09 am #336363 ya as of right now i have no engine light on or anything. it just turns over and doesnt start :x so ill see what i can do this week write an update when i can. I appreciate the help so far tho! :thumb:
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Thought I figured it out :cry:

By Pathless23
- Sun Sep 08, 2013 9:21 pm #336456 OK so I took some time yesterday and Friday to check out what had happened and this is what me and my buddy found; The first thing was that two of the wires had been cut from the ECU wire harness on the shell because the previous owner had attempted to manually wire in Vtec. Also that there were a couple of wires underneath the steering wheel and dashboard on the driver side that looks like he also maybe had a alarm system and something else Jerry rigged into the steering wheel/dashboard wires. So of course I pulled up some of the wiring diagrams for the shell that I have and I'm pretty sure I got it all back together and soldered very neatly back together. However, when I put the put the dashboard back on and I attempted to start it, it wouldn't even turn over and it smells like burning plastic over by the driver side. Any ideas of what I could do or what it could be?
:? :x
BTW I'm going to take some pictures tonight to hopefully paint a better picture of what I did and where it was located :thumb:
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By TrailerTrash
- Mon Sep 09, 2013 12:04 am #336461 my guess on the burning plastic is you did something wrong. asuming you didnt smell anything like that before you fixed it.

there should be no cutting of the factory harness to add wires for VTEC on a non VTEC car.

did you check all the fuses under the hood all the fuses under the dash and all the ground wires?
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By Pathless23
- Wed Sep 11, 2013 4:39 am #336549 Ya im not sure why it started smelling like that, but it was definitely coming from the dashboard. and i didnt think u had to cut the ecu harness to wire one in but apparently thats how the previous owner had done it (or attempted to). and i checked all the wires and grounds the day it happened and didnt notice anything in particular but ill take another look to be sure. plus i tried to take pics but i cant take a good enough pic with my phone to be able to show what i did and where its at. so ill see what i can do
Last edited by Pathless23 on Fri Sep 13, 2013 5:04 am, edited 1 time in total.
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By suspendedHatch
- Wed Sep 11, 2013 6:27 pm #336582
anya2dgre wrote:But if it was the fuel relay then you would have gotten a code.


There is no code for "fuel relay" or main relay. Unplug yours and see for yourself.
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